first monthly report for rotary :)

I have no idea how I'm going to write all about what's happened since I've been here in a reasonable amount of space. My life here is so interesting and so difficult, but I'm learning (and definitely growing as a person) to embrace those difficulties. This year is going to be the most emotionally-testing year of my life, but it's also going to be the best.
I would say what first has been on my mind is my family. I absolutely completely love the huge extended family that all lives next door, and it makes it easy when I'm getting bored at my house to just walk over to their houses. My mom here is a lot different than my mom in Colorado, but I know she loves me, just shows it a little differently. The moms here really care about their kids, and are extremely nervous for them, so they are overly protective, which I am not used to. I absolutely love my dad, he's so funny and I feel like he really cares about me. My sister is a typical sixteen-year-old, and she is kind of always on the computer, so she is nice when she talks to me, but I think she also has other things on her mind. My thirteen-year-old brother, Mateo, actually really has caused a few problems for me. That is an incredibly difficult age, but he has not been helping me at all with my life here. He's definitely better now, but we're still not even close to being best friend siblings. I have hope because I see how he acts with all the cousins, so I think what it is is that he's jealous of the extra attention I have. My aunt who acts a lot like my mom from Colorado hosted an exchange student boy last year who had the same problem with her daughters that I'm having with Mateo, and she said at the three month mark all should be going well.
My school. Honestly, when I was getting ready to come here, I was so upset I would be going to an all girls school. Then I got here, and I really love it. There aren't really any cliques here, and everyone in my class is friends with everyone. There's only one girl who I'm not good friends with, and I'm nice to her when I talk to her, but she talks behind people's backs a lot, so I figured I should stay away from her. We had a presidential school campaign, and it was two huge parties to see which course would have the bigger one and which would win. I wish that was a tradition in the US, because I absolutely loved the giant dance party and the getting out early, even though we lost.
So, now on to that thing that you're probably wondering about what happened. Yeah, there was a problem between the police and the military/president, and the police tried to take down the president, so to make their point they didn't work that day. Here, it's extremely dangerous if there are no police, so that was terrifying. The riots started in Ambato, so we didn't have school Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, in contrast to Quito which only didn't have Thursday afternoon and Friday. I saw the protest in Ambato on Thursday, and chanting completely terrifies me. We were at the post office waiting, so I went back in and on TV there was news about what was happening in Quito. I wish I had stayed outside, there was awful footage of a lot of people getting gassed and fainting. I have to admit, I was pretty terrified and pretty glad I didn't live in Quito. It's kind of weird though, because it just, stopped. Thursday was terrifying in the afternoon, and kind of in the night with the burnings of random stuff everywhere, but Friday was completely normal.
I was in for a few surprises when I got here, and there are definitely some things I wasn't expecting. For some reason, I thought that everyone spoke English, if only just a tiny bit. Well, I was wrong, and it completely startled me when the stop signs said "Pare" and the "No Parking" sign had an E, not a P, in the middle of the crossed out circle. I also expected that everyone spoke with their dogs in English, so when the mom said "Afuera" (outside!) to the dog, I thought, "Wow, the dog doesn't know Spanish." Negra (the dog), went outside, and I thought, "What a smart dog, it knows Spanish." It's kind of hard to explain, but I just expected that all dogs knew English.
I do miss some things about the USA, and they're things that I had completely taken for granted. For example, the streets here have a lot of trash, and there are homeless dogs everywhere. It breaks my heart to see these dogs that don't have homes everywhere, just sitting underneath peoples chairs outside the restaurant. Also, the air here I consider kind of unclean, and I have to say I miss the air, not a food or something else, the most. Coming from Colorado, where there is probably the best air in the world, and going to Ecuador really startled me. I'll get a headache here when I walk around, and I don't know if that's because of the altitude or the pollution here. I also, it sounds silly, but I miss being able to open my mouth in the shower. That and being able to use the tap water here I miss, because now I don't have those two simple pleasures of opening my mouth in the shower or drinking water whenever I want.
So I'm sure you're wondering if I had studied more, and honestly that answer is no. Sure, maybe ten minutes every day or something, but I was pretty prepared to come here. Of course the first two weeks were hard, but I was able to make it through and now I'm on my way to fluent. I understand everything people say to me, except for when old men talk, because they speak in a sort of mumble. Everyone here is telling me that I'm so much better than I was when I got here, which is such a relief. I think that there is only a certain amount of studying that you can spend before you just have to immerse yourself in the language. I am actually kind of losing my English, and someone will ask me a question about it and I'll have to think if the sentence worked or not. My priority is not to keep my English at all, but it would be nice if I had enough brains to write my university applications.
About Rotary, the beautiful program that sent me here. I think it's pretty different here from the USA, but not so different. My club, Ambato Cosmopolita, is different from the other club in Ambato, as my club is held above a gas station and the other is in a fancy hotel. We had hot dogs and Coke the first meeting I went to, while the other club had a fancy dinner. I think it's funny how they are here, but they've all been really nice so far. People are surprised when I say that there were 30 exchange students in District 5470, but then I try to remind them that Ecuador is the same size as Colorado, and has more than double the exchange students. The fact that that number includes only Rotary, not other exchange programs, and that not all of Ecuador is habitable (what with the Amazon), proves that the program is much larger in Ecuador. At least in my family, it's always a question of who will leave next, like, "Oh well David, Anita, and Juan are gone, and next year it's Sebas and after that it's Emi." Whenever I ask my classmates if they want to do exchange, they always say yes of course, and they all really want to go to the USA. A lot of the exchange students I talked to that are in Ecuador also said that their first choice was the USA, which I thought was kind of weird. Then I thought about it, and I realized that the USA is different from everywhere in Europe, South America, and Asia, and we are known all over.
So on to the exchange students here. I kind of find it cruel that we're going to become SUCH good friends, definitely best friends, and then have to leave each other after one year that will definitely pass way too fast. I mean, we're already in October and it feels like I've only been here for maximum three weeks. Honestly I'm dreading so much when I will have to leave this life I have here, and I don't even need to worry about that for, oh no, only eight more months! After this year, it's made me realize that I for sure want to do university in Europe, there's no question any more. I love the people here, and talking with everyone it's making really want to live in Europe. I had been debating it before, but this has just sealed the deal that I'm headed to a different continent when I'm able to. I love every single exchange student here, we're definitely the coolest people and the funnest, and it, like the outbounds from Colorado, only took one day to become best friends. When I got back from the Spanish camp, I missed everyone so much. I can not imagine how much I'm going to miss my friends from all over the world when I have to leave, especially after two Rotary trips we're going to take in April. After that, I'll see everyone, other than those in my city, for maybe one more time. I've met other exchange students that aren't from Rotary, and they're definitely as cool. It's funny how when you meet another exchange student, no matter what, there's a connection and you are automatically best friends. I love it, it's that fact that binds us all together.
Anyways, I hope all is well in Colorado, and I thank Rotary so much for this experience. I have no idea what I would be doing if I was there in Rampart High School, but I'm so glad I'm having the experience of my life right now, and even though it may be difficult at times it's definitely worth it.